Archives for October 2010

Which sort of success would you rather have, one like those in my results folder, or one like this email, below?

I don’t know if you have the time to answer my email, but I hope so. I just stumbled across your wonderful website and have read a couple of comments from vegetarians concerning the Paleo-type diet.

My problem is that I’m a 56 year old woman who needs to lose 100 pounds. I’m so sick and tired of feeling this way. I became a vegan only one year ago, in an attempt to find the "right" and healthy diet. Except that I keep cheating with chocolate and donuts. I have lived a SAD diet for over 55 years, so it’s hard to stop.

I downloaded a few Paleo books onto my Kindle and I’m seriously interested in it. I have no interest in meat or cheese or dairy, for many reasons, but I DO love sardines and don’t object to eggs either. Can I do this Paleo diet with lots of salads, smoothies, and fruits while supplementing with sardines and occasionally an egg? Also, what about hemp protein? I have Sun Warrior raw RICE powder which would obviously be a no-no. But the hemp should be ok, right?

I would so appreciate some words of encouragement as I’m the only one in my family learning all this and it’s a scary thing to thrust yourself into first the vegan world and now the Paleo world. Help!!!!!!

In a subsequent email this reader told me that she is 30 pounds heavier since going vegan.

Well right off the bat I have to take note that a vegan, or even vegetarian diet is probably a tough thing to get right — particularly the former. As Dan Linehan, a vegan reader and commenter has noted: Mountain Dew and Doritos are "vegan." So are chocolates and donuts. I don’t know how many comments we’ve seen around here from people who dropped the attempt at a vegan or vegetarian diet after gaining substantial weight. Such results are very hard to come by on Paleo.

The thing about Paleo is that it’s not just about what to avoid (neolithic food agents like grains, sugar, processed foods and industrial lubricants masquerading as "heart healthy oils) but even more, what to eat: plenty of meat, fish, fowl, vegetables, some fruit & nuts.

And while yes, there’s talk of "vegan or vegetarian Paleo" I’m not so sure that would be accurate since, by definition, Paleo includes meat — we simply had to have eaten super-dense nutrition to evolve the large brains we have, in combination with small guts. On the other hand, no point in getting bogged down in semantics. Suffice to say that both vegan and vegetarian diets can be whole, natural, real food diets. I just don’t think they are anywhere near optimally nutritious while at the same time, carrying substantial risk of peril when not done properly.

So as to the specific questions above, what say you, readers? Here’s what I’d say: if you’re going to do smoothies, then use plenty of coconut milk for the fat. Sardines are certainly a good choice by between those and the eggs, try to get as close as you can to a gram of protein per day per pound of lean mass, i.e., what you would weigh without the 100 pounds of fat you need to lose.

I know nothing about hemp but I’m pretty sure that protein from fish and eggs is going to be far superior. Moreover, you might look into other types of small fish, shellfish, mussels, oysters and such.

Let me get this out of the way: This is a 16-something minute video by me, sitting at my desk, doing various camera gyrations from time-to-time, not to annoy, but generally trying to make it prescient and entertaining — but I’m not an entertainer so what the fuck do I know? It’s about Paleo bloggers, those trying to make a mark, which I salute, endorse, encourage. Nonetheless, it’s 16 minutes…

Having edited it only slightly and then watched it a couple of times to make sure it wouldn’t be totally fucked from a production standpoint — and what the fuck would I know about that? — I finally uploaded it with much fear & loathing.

But I di it in spite of the fear and loathing, which is the essential theme of the video, if you make it to the very end.

I’m in a busy stint at the moment. Yes, more Leangains posts are coming, but they will be spaced out somewhat.

So here’s a few odds & ends I’ve been noticing from the Paleosphere and the general low-carb community, lately.

~ You might not think that a website dedicated to nursing schools would publish a list of the "50 Best Blogs for the Low-Carb Lifestyle," but they did and included Free the Animal amongst lots of other good blogs.

~ Speaking of good blogs; you know, there’s so many out there, now, many of them starving for attention. The problem is that I can barely keep up with the ones I’ve generally followed for a while. I suppose I look at it this way: you just have to keep plugging along and get enough quality material up so as to establish a certain momentum, both from searches, word of mouth and eventually, links from other blogs.

Anyone who’s been a reader here for any length of time knows that I’ve liberally linked up and referenced quite a few other blogs, such as Whole Health Source, Protein Power, Hyperlipid — to name only a few.

And since I can’t keep up with everyone blogging out there — not even close — I tend to think that some of the newer blogs (or new in terms of popularity) will catch my attention if they happen to be fortunate enough to "be somebody."

Here’s three blogs in particular that are doing great work, latetly:

1. Ned Kockat Health Correlator: "This blog is about statistics, evolution, nutrition, lifestyle, and health issues. A combination of these issues. The focus is on quantitative research and how it can be applied in practice." Ned reminds me a lot of Stephan at Whole Health Source in terms of just putting high quality science and reason out there. And Ned’s a great commenter at other blogs as well. Some bloggers think the way to build their blogs is to comment at the blogs of others, which is true. But to do it truly effectively you have to make it very relevant and on point, which Ned has always done here. When he comments, he’s adding value to what I’ve posted and that’s always welcome.

2. Melissa McEwen at Hunt.Gather.Love: You may remember Melissa (and John Durant, who’s up next) from the New York Times piece last January: The New Age Cavemen and the City. Since then, Melissa has been blogging and lately, blogging up a storm. And she’s intelligent — with an intellectual streak –and a good writer, which always helps.

3. John Durant at Hunter-Gatherer: It took a while from the time John was featured in the NYT to get his five minutes of fame on The Colbert Report. He must have been to busy kicking vegan ass to really get going with blogging, but he finally did and is making quite a go of it. His is more of a total lifestyle variety blog, I’d say. Not heavy, but with plenty of topics to find something of interest for everyone. John also has a fresh book deal with a good publisher so we’ll be anxious to see how that develops.

I would have to say that indeed is it. And in the extreme. We haven’t survived by accident.

…The other night I woke up at 3am, 0-dark-30, and was wondering, idly, about snakes. In our new place, I installed a doggie door — as we have a master bedroom door onto the outside backyard patio. The dogs sleep with us but now they have a means of going out to relieve, whenever. But what if a cold blooded reptile came along and simply — lured by their sense of heat from the house — meandered in through the plastic flappy door? And then found the most heat around the bed? Under the covers, as we’re sleeping…unaware?

In the end, I consoled myself by remembering that we had a doggie door for five years in the suburbs in a prior life and had not a single wild animal encroachment. What I don’t know is whether I just comforted myself because a snake in the bed — especially a poisonous one — would be an amazingly rare occurrence, or whether I was simply dismissing a real risk. I can’t say which, but in the end I suspect it’s a bit different living in civilized suburbia than out in the wild.

So dismiss all that; I did. But it — that — nonetheless can’t possibly dismiss the underlying premise: fear. The snakes — or, rather, fear of them now — were merely a consequence of the hard wiring we have that played a principle role in making us who we are.

Could it be said that successful evolution is a study in fear, however it works out?

What if…you actually live your life primarily motivated by fear — but now, modern fear? And is that normal? Indeed, it may be so! But in what context? Have you succumbed to the fear of stealthy snakes, lions and other natural predators or, have you set up shop in ways to forget real fears, all the while ushering in a whole host of contrived ones?

Has your natural survival mechanism of fear — your principal survival tool — been used against you, and most perniciously?

I’m thinking politics & religion vs. snakes & lions. But I’m of the opinion that modern neolithic city-state politics derives its credibility from neolithic religion…so let’s hack at the root.

I go in cycles where there are periods where I eat out at restaurants more frequently than at other times. Recently that has been the case.

So here’s just some of the photos I’ve snapped over the past couple of weeks. Mostly steak and variations on salad. There’s one vegetable dish. All this pics can be clicked for higher quality counterparts.

Steak & Salad

Encore!

Can’t get enough…

The roasted cauliflower was great

Yes, no doubt I’m getting some franken oils in all of that, especially considering the salad dressings (blue cheese in two cases, ceasar in the other). Well, that’s why I like to try and prepare my own food at least 90% of the time.

The rest I just chalk up to living. That said, I consider these minimal assaults on an otherwise pretty sane diet. What I almost never do — but will on a blue moon — is have so much as a morsel of bread or taste of dessert.

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I'm Richard Nikoley. Free the Animal began in 2003, and as of 2017, contains over 4,500 posts and 100,000 comments from readers. I cover a lot of ground, blogging what I wish...from health, diet, and lifestyle to philosophy, politics, social issues, and cryptocurrency. I celebrate the audacity and hubris to live by your own exclusive authority and take your own chances in life. [Read more...]

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